The 2 Biggest Lessons That Made Me A Profitable Entrepreneur

You will hear countless tales of marketing wonder, genius innovation, and disruptive technology.

This is not one of those times.

The fact is, when I look back, I realized I learned to be the best entrepreneur I could be and insanely good at earning revenue the moment I drastically shifted my mindset away from constantly trying to fix my own problems.

See, everyone has a list; things they want to work on for themselves; goals for their personal life and well-being; goals for their business and financial freedom; goals for their relationships and more.

People who tend to be driven, such as entrepreneurs, tend to put massive pressure on themselves for all the things they need to fix.

I want you to do an exercise right now.

I want you to write down 5 to 10 things that you would change about yourself or would master in order to have everything you needed to accomplish your goals and have the biggest impact on your life.

Write 5 Things Down

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Okay, now that you have those things, let’s talk about the journey of you and your vast earning potential.

First, have you ever thought about why we pick the things we pick the most? Why are they the first things we pick? Is it because they are our weakest links.

I remember one of my first things was to be a better marketer because I wanted to earn more money. I worried so much about how to market, how to copywrite, how to communicate, how to get my message across and more.

My other items consisted of mindfulness, being present more, staying focused, and mastering money, to name a few. I believe I had a list of 10 things or more.

See, the logic I used to have was that if I could control my mind and be in a present and inspired space, then I’d be a better marketer. Hence, I bought every book on the market.

Also, I thought that if I could deprogram my deep seeded negative emotions around money, I knew I had to do some reconditioning.

So, I started reading, Think & Grow Rich, the Automatic Millionaire, etc. And while those books are great, it wasn’t only about the money. Those publications led to me wanting to find my sense of purpose, my calling.

And then the epiphany . . .

I began to set out on my path to self-correct and once I started fixing these things, I started making a lot more money. However, these things I was fixing were actually a byproduct of fulfilling my purpose; of playing in the bigger picture.

I’ve been trying to fix myself since as long as I can remember. No amount of work that we do on ourselves will ever be enough, nor should be enough. Because if our work on Earth is done, for our work is done, if we’ve grown as much as we possibly can, then life is over.

I had always thought that if I work on myself first, then I’ll be successful. That turned out to not be true. We are always a work in progress and most of the time the way we get better is by taking action on things away from us.

The two things that I think in this context were the most powerful in terms of me becoming a profitable entrepreneur and making money on demand, basically came down to the conclusion that I will never fix all these things and if I have to fix all of them in order to be successful, then I will never be successful.

Think about that for a second in how powerful that is. I will never fix all of these things because your life is always in growth mode, or at least it should be.

What if I could convince you that beyond a reasonable doubt that the 5 or 10 things that you wrote down, that would make the difference for you in 2017, you don’t have to fix them, and you’re going to have the money anyways? You can have the success anyways. That would be too good to be true, correct? Or wouldn’t it. Too good to be true? Certainly was for me for most of my life.

So, to that, how did I get my mind right about making money? How did I finally understand money as a tool and becoming highly profitable?

Well, there are two key points you need to know so let’s start with the first.

Income Has Nothing To Do With Your Circumstances

This point came when my back was against the wall. When it was do-or-die mode. It was either a cardboard box to live in because my rent was overdue and I was getting evicted or go back and get my job.

I had all this pressure on myself to fix these things about myself because I thought those were the reasons I was struggling.

I have to make money today, or certainly by Monday, or I’m going to have to live in a cardboard box or go back and get my job.

So, clearly, I’m not going to fix all these things in 3 days. That was when I was forced to separate the issues between money and my conditions. Ironically, I had thought money was one of my conditions, but it was actually a separate issue entirely.

Your income has nothing to do with any one of your other conditions or weaknesses.

Wealth and abundance have nothing to do with your character, your integrity, your self-control, your discipline or any of these that we think they do, and here’s proof.

Look at how some of the most evil, corrupt, greedy corporations or heartless, soulless people who are able to make money on demand.

Money or the concept of remuneration has nothing to do with soft skills, character skills, personality skills, marketing skills, or technical skills that we think we need to have. They are not mutually exclusive, and the first big wake-up call was when I was forced to separate the two issues.

When I focused on this separation, I started doing research and I read the Science of Getting Rich. What that book gave me the ability to actually separate these issues.

The concept is that you have a very simple filter that you carry in your brain, and even though you can’t prevent the thoughts, feelings, and emotions from coming in, you are very aware that when they come, you consciously pivot away from them. You don’t let yourself dwell on them. It’s hard to do at first, but you get really good at it.

Any thought that came in that wasn’t in alignment with my immediate goal to make money; I would just pivot off of it.

That is horrifying and scary as hell, but I can’t think about that now because I need to think about this. It gave me the ability to compartmentalize.

Think about that. If you know you have to pay your rent in 3 days and your mind tries to worry about the usual bullshit that may never even happen, you’re going to immediately shut those fears and worries down so you can hunker down and create money in 3 days. You don’t have time to worry. There is no time.

So, that taught me a very valuable lesson that where my attention and energy goes, is what I can manifest. In this case, it was money. The money had nothing to do with my problems. Great, so the next viable question is, how do we make a lot of money?

You’ll Accomplish Your Dreams by Helping Others Accomplish Theirs

I was reading the book Think & Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, and that line had come up,

You’ll accomplish your dreams by helping others accomplish theirs.

At the time, I had no idea what that really meant because I wasn’t qualified to help anyone accomplish any goals, or at least I had thought that way.

But if that book is the synopsis of Napoleon Hill, who was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to interview 400 millionaires of their day to discover the most common denominators of the leaders of the industrial revolution, then let me try that.

And by the way, a millionaire then is a billionaire today.

What that caused me to do was to make a shift; to try to make the biggest possible impact on people every single day.

All of a sudden, when I did that and “stopped” trying to make money but simply shifted focus to helping as many people as possible, my income drastically grew. I realized that earning money is a byproduct of my impact to society.

I had to, out of necessity, put my focus on serving; having an impact on others.

How can I make other people’s lives better?

So, when I sat down to write an article, instead of thinking of whether or not this is going to convert to leads, or does this have all the right hooks and headlines, I decided none of that mattered anymore.

I didn’t need to learn copywriting to do what I needed to do. I was just going to write from the heart. And all of a sudden, copywriting was no longer a skill or prerequisite to making money. It doesn’t really matter cause you can’t say the wrong thing to the right person if you’re saying it from the right place.

I started being like,

This is just the way it is. This is the way I see it. To this day, any content, this is not about you Jay.

To make money, your goals cannot be to make money. Your goals have to be how do I make as many people’s lives enhanced and reach as many people as possible; as quickly as possible.

Let me go to help and serve. It’s not about me. It’s about them.

The fastest way to make a shitload of money is to help a shitload of people. So even if you’re doing it for selfish reasons, you’re still helping people. And then guess what happens. The money comes because the money is a byproduct of service and value.

Final Thoughts . . .

Regardless of what’s in your bank account, regardless of what your immediate financial needs are, resist the urge to go out and try to find ways to make money because ultimately you’re going to end up not doing the right things for the right reasons or people.

You’re not going to get fulfillment from that money and that is going to reinforce a deeper counter narrative subconsciously that money is bad and you will perpetually struggle.

Throw all that out the window and say,

Today, I’m getting better. How can I help more and more people today.

When you start focusing on serving others, all these other things that you’re trying to fix about yourself, kind of take care of themselves on their own. That way, whatever you do focus on, you’re going to get more of.

Jay Kubassek is a father, serial digital entrepreneur and co-founder of Digital Experts Academy. He is also a professional speaker and trainer, Baja off-road racer (Dust Racing), member of the New York Blue Elephant Polo team, self-taught cellist, amateur photographer, amateur chef and indie film producer (Aliquot Films).

20 Comments

Thanks Jay. Very valuable insights. I really need to make that shift in my mindset. I’m going to write this down now and keep it close to my computer! => “Today, I’m getting better. How can I help more and more people today.” Have a great day, Greg

Incredibly powerful insight! I was absolutely shell-shocked when you talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Reading it now, it’s still just as powerful. Something to keep in mind constantly. Thanks Jay.

Yep… pure awesomeness.
It’s this vein you are tapping Jay that hits such a deep note and is why my wife and I chose to become students of SFM.
I still struggle with the concept of becoming a marketer, due to the selfish/manipulative perspective it tends to conjure in me, but there isn’t much more inspiring or engaging than to build a business around serving and raising others up.

I like the article, and it’s so true what you said; I am struggling with some of the things you mentioned here Jay. The desire is burning inside of me, but some alignment and clear vision are what I am lacking.
Still optimistic and believe that it will happen for me too, it’s just a matter of time and patients.

Hi Zubair! My apologies for not answering sooner. Been on many travels! I’m glad you liked the article. Remain optimistic and strong always. Keep building, have patience and be consistent! You’ll get to where you’re going if you know where you want to go and you’re willing to put the work in.

Great post Jay! Thank you. Only one question remains unanswered. How come, that these most evil, corrupt, greedy corporations or heartless, soulless people who serve nobody except themselves are able to make shitload of money on demand?